TREATMENT WEAK SISTER OF FOUR-PILLAR APPROACH

The city's two residential drug detox centres are struggling to find
treatment beds for some clients after they dry out.

Jackie Franson, manager of the Salvation Army's Cordova Detox Centre, said
drug addicts who've concluded detox must go back to their hotel room or
into an emergency shelter while they wait for a bed in a treatment centre.

"It's certainly a less than ideal situation," said Franson, who is
responsible for 29 residential detox beds. "Treatment beds are few and far
between and definitely there are not as many as we want. There's a lot of
people wanting help."

Addicts spend between 14 hours and 21 days in detox, after which they are
supposed to be placed in treatment centres. Vancouver Coastal Health
Authority funds 50 city detox beds and 100 after-care residential treatment
beds. However, each of the city's seven treatment centres is operated by
its own board of directors and has different admission standards.

Mary Marlow, manager of the 24-bed Vancouver Detox on the 300-block of East
2nd Avenue, said she has problems finding treatment beds for heroine
addicts on methadone.

Marlow said some treatment centres consider a person on methadone to still
be an active drug user, and therefore ineligible for treatment because they
are not committed to abstinence.

"It's a real problem we are having," Marlow said. "We have to spend a lot
of time finding them a place and often it's in Surrey, yet their
counsellors are still in Vancouver, which is really problematic."

Marlow said some treatment centres will evict a recovering addict if they
are caught using drugs again, which simply puts them back on the streets.

"A lot of education needs to be done around the nature of addiction. It is
a chronic situation where people frequently relapse and they shouldn't be
punished," she said. "There needs to be a program where they can re-enter
treatment and carry on with the recovery process."

The health authority recently revised its addiction services to include
"daytox" and home detox services, both of which are cheaper options than
residential detox.

Daytox and home detox are part-time programs and only offered to addicts
with stable homes. The health authority places addicts in detox through a
centralized phone-booking service. Marlow said some addicts prefer daytox
or home detox because it is a less intrusive form of detox.

In March, Vancouver police and Pivot Legal Society called for more
treatment beds in the city as a way to curtail petty crime committed by
"revolving door" addicts, who go in and out of detox but are not adequately
treated afterwards. Pivot and the VPD argue that treatment is the
underfunded pillar of the city's drug policy. The other pillars are harm
reduction, enforcement and education.

Vivianna Zanocco, health authority spokeswoman, said the authority is
reviewing how it delivers addiction treatment options. The authority pays
for detox services for 4,200 addicts a year in Vancouver and provides
either day or residential treatment for 9,700 addicts a year.